A Midnight Visit
by LadyBowie1947
Summary: On a cold, rainy night, a woman finds herself in a cemetery to visit the man she loved. JarethxOC.


**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **_I wrote this in maybe an hour… Would have been shorter, but I kept getting distracted with some things and then getting stuck within the fic… Anyway, I don't know where most of this comes from. I was feeling so many emotions and just needed a way to vent and get them out and that's where the beginning comes from, but everything after that just kinda… happened._

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She stands in the pouring rain in only her nightgown and a thin robe that wasn't even tied shut. Her blond hair whipped around her face in the wind and stuck to her cheeks. Lightning flashed around her and thunder rumbled deeply, but she never moved. She stared with unseeing eyes in the horizon's direction though it was too dark to really see the horizon.

If one would look closely at the woman, one would see that tears slipped down her face, mixing with the rain and allowing her hair to stick to her cheeks. One would see that her eyes were a light blue but darkened with emotion. One would see her shoulders were shaking though not from the cold. No. If one were to look closely at this woman, one would notice that she was sobbing.

Without warning, she glares at the sky and screams as hard as she can until her voice is hoarse and her throat is sore. The thunder rumbles louder in the sky as if to echo her outburst. She sobs harder, gasping for breath and coughing when the cold air burns her throat and folding herself forward to rest her forearms on the stone floor of the balcony, hiding her face into her arms as she cries.

"Jareth…" she whispers though her sobs, shaking her head as if in denial. "My Jareth…"

She cries for a long while until she can't cry any more. Brushing her hair from her cheeks, she slowly sits up, taking in shaky breaths. She stares at the sky for a moment longer then quickly turns and hurries into the bedroom. Her expression remains blank and her eyes unseeing as she shrugs out of her robe and carelessly tosses it to the floor then yanks her nightgown up and tosses that aside as well with little care for where it landed.

As if being controlled, she went into the closet and quickly and effortlessly dressed in a simple black dress with long sleeves, a V-neck, and a slim skirt that went to her ankles. She shoves her feet into black flats and yanks her hair up into a messy bun. No make-up or jewelry except the amulet that hung around her neck. It hung on a simple black cord and resembled an arrowhead though the bottom corners curved inward. A golden circle with a symbol that resembled the infinity sign rested in its center.

She clutched this amulet now as she hurries from the room, easily navigating the hallways and out the front doors and down the stone steps back into the storm. She hurries around the stone castle to a stable and swiftly mounts a horse and rides out into the storm. She doesn't stop until she's reached the gates to a cemetery at the back of the castle grounds. It's a small graveyard though a large stone building stood at the back, the same symbol of the woman's amulet engraved above its door.

She carefully moves through the headstones and stands at the bottom of the steps to the building. Gathering her skirt in her hand, she climbs the few steps to stand before the door, gazing at the symbol above it and clutching the one around her neck.

After a moment, she pushes the door open and steps into the dark room. She waves a hand and a candelabra flares to life in the corner, bathing the room in a soft glow and illuminating the sleek black casket on the platform in the center of the room. She drops her skirt and runs her hands down it to smooth it out a bit then takes a few tentative steps forward. A plaque stood off to the side and she stares at it though she knew what it said. She'd had it burned into her memory since the day she first saw it.

_Jareth, King of the Goblins and Lord of the Labyrinth_

_March 8__th__, 1397 – March 19__th__, 2012_

_Beloved son, brother, husband, father, and uncle and best Goblin King the goblins have ever known._

As she reads it over again, her breath hitches and she quickly turns her head to stare at the casket, her lower lip quivering hard. She tries to take in steady breaths, but they come shaky and she trembles. Tears slip down her cheeks and she sobs softly.

"Jareth…" she whispers. "My Jareth… My sweet, adoring-" She breaks off as the sobs come full force and she struggles to catch her breath. "M-My sweet, ado-ring big br-brother… The greatest man I ever knew…" She wipes at her eyes and sniffles. "How can I go on without you? Without you protecting me like before? You were all I knew. The man I compared every other man to." She lets herself laugh softly, her lips tilting up in a faint ghost of a smile. "And, of course, none were ever good enough. Not for me. Not for you. None were ever good enough for your baby sister."

As she talks, she settles to sit against the platform, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. The tears stop falling and the old ones dry on her cheeks. Her smiles become more genuine as she begins to laugh at stories she remembers about herself with Jareth, from childhood and from adulthood.

"Remember the time we went into the Goblin City and it started pouring on us? Instead of using our magic, we decided to run back to the castle, laughing and holding hands the entire way?" She laughs a bit and leans her head back. "Father was furious and Mother refused to let us go anywhere until she had Healer Erin make sure we weren't going to get ill." She shakes her head in amusement and looks lovingly at the casket as if Jareth were sitting right there to smile and laugh with her. "Though, of course, we both ended up getting colds. And how we entertained ourselves the next few days, stuck in our rooms." She bursts into peals of laughter then quickly calms herself and sighs, staring at the floor. "I was always glad our rooms were connected by that door. Not like Ron's and the other two. Separate, single rooms."

She sighs and stands, brushing off her skirt and looking at the casket with eyes lighter than before, her lips still turned up in a small smile. "I miss you every day, big brother. I never stop thinking about you. I'll tell Zowie stories about her Uncle Jare. Always. I promise." She bends to brush the side of the casket. "And I'll come back to you soon, Jare. I love you, big brother."

She gives the casket one last smile and runs out into the night and through the cemetery to her horse. It had stopped raining now and the clouds were fading to let the moonlight through, lighting what was once dark. She stares up at the sky as she stands by her horse and smiles, sighing in content, feeling lighter and freer.

As she mounts her horse and rides back toward the castle, a gentle breeze picks up. And if one were to listen closely, one might hear a faint voice of a man with a slight English accent. And if one were to listen closely to this voice, one might hear what it says.

"_Althea_..."


End file.
